Driving license in Mongolia

I was told that with my US driver's license, that is sufficient if I'm just visiting.  But long-term or permanent residents here like me are required to get a local license if we want to drive here.  It was a traffic policeman that told us this, though even so I would double check that with the Traffic Police if you're just visiting Mongolia but want or need to drive.  In my experience around here even people whose job it is to know and apply the rules and laws on occasion ignore or bend them in favor of their own interpretation (or they just make stuff up

It's been at least 7 months since I got my license, but from what I remember I needed my request letter requesting the drivers license (mine written in English accompanied by an official translation into Mongolian), a couple passport photos, my home country driver's license, a COPY of my home country driver's license ALONG WITH an official translation of it, and their application form (filled out in Mongolian).  The only stumbling block for me was figuring out what to put for my blood type, since on the application form they ask you to write it according to their numbers or Roman numeral system instead of A, B, AB, etc.  So look up what your blood type is in the numeral format beforehand (try wikipedia) so you don't guess wrong.  FYI, on the license itself it does happen to list the standard Western format (A, B, O, etc) along with the numeral, unlike on the application form. 

So getting necessary documents wasn't too hard, but the wait was kind of a pain.  We had to go to a different office room on the 2nd floor (I think) of the Traffic Police building to submit the documents to the guy who approves the applications, and he told us to come back in one week.  We did, but then he told us to come back again in one week (from what we could tell it was sitting on his desk untouched the whole time).  We came back a week later, and finally it was approved so we got to take my paperwork to the downstairs side office (the one with the teller-type booths and lines), and filled out the application and submitted it and my other documents to one of the clerks there.  My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think at that point we had to wait almost another week to pick up my actual drivers license card.  All in all, I think the whole process took almost 3 weeks.  As for cost I don't remember exactly how much it was, but I think it was only around or less than 40,000 Tugriks.  And even though the process was a pain, at least they don't make you have to take a driving test if you already have a foreign drivers license. 

One final thing that's probably worth mentioning, if you're not yet fluent in Mongolian you really will need to have a Mongolian friend with you to help communicate and fill out the application (or perhaps you can just have them submit everything for you).